Introduce Yourself : You can call me Ishamael by Paul VanDevelder

Greetings to all doing hard time as would be/wanna be/will be screenwriters.  No, I'm not Ishmael, but it was a catchy opening line when Melville used it.  In a former life I was a photojournalist for the wire services and newspapers and covered the ugliest of the ugly, regardless of where it was.  My language was light.  For 20+ years I've been a freelance journalist and author of books and magazine stories.  I got dragged into this by a good friend, John Nichols, who wrote MISSING and The Milagro Beanfield War.  I've got two basic rules that guide and inspire me: 1) the only way an open mind can hurt you is if you don't have one, and 2) you can't write more clearly than you think. With that, you sit your butt in the chair (or stand), put your fingers on the keys, and open a vein. Delighted to meet you all.